Whoever’s posting the links at Drudge Report really seems to enjoy the work of the Dumbest Man on the Internet, Jim Hoft, because the estimable Gateway Pundit receives another Drudge benefaction today, for another long-debunked right wing paranoid fantasy:

First, the DHS doesn’t have “tanks.” They have armored vehicles intended to be used in emergency situations like Hurricane Katrina, and in ICE raids against drug gangs along the Mexican border, where the criminals are known to possess military weaponry such as fully automatic rifles and grenade launchers.

But to make it even more sinister, the DHS is hiding these SCARY SEKRIT MURDER TANKS in plain sight, right on the front page of their border security section.

Here’s a classified photo of one of the SCARY MURDER TANKS terrorizing some helpless children back in 2010. (h/t: Gus.)

UPDATE at 3/4/13 2:48:40 pm

But wait, it gets even dumber! LGF contributor Gus dug up the announcement of the contract for this particular order of 2700 MRAPs (actually 2717), and it turns out that they’re being purchased by the Marine Corps … not the DHS.

Navistar Defense, L.L.C., Warrenville, Ill., is being awarded an $879,923,195 firm-fixed-priced delivery order 0023 under previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5032) for the procurement of 2,717 units of rolling chassis; 10 engineering change proposals; and 25 contract data requirements lists, for MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. Work will be performed in West Point, Miss., and is expected to be completed by the end of October 2013. Procurement funds in the amount of $879,923,195 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The original contract was competitively procured. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity.

So what Hoft has discovered are secret tanks being bought by the DHS that aren’t secret and aren’t tanks, and aren’t being bought by the DHS.

Following up on Rick Santorum’s new job at the conspiracy website World Net Daily, and his absolutely insane fear-mongering column about the UN treaty on the rights of the disabled, heartless Republican bastards in the Senate rejected the treaty today — even with Bob Dole making a special appearance in a wheelchair to support it: Republican Opposition Downs UN Disability Treaty.

WASHINGTON — Led by Republican opposition, the Senate on Tuesday rejected a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled that is modeled after the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.

With 38 Republicans casting “no” votes, the 61-38 vote fell five short of the two-thirds majority needed to ratify a treaty. The vote took place in an unusually solemn atmosphere, with senators sitting at their desks rather than milling around the podium. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, looking frail and in a wheelchair, was in the chamber to support the treaty.

The treaty, already signed by 155 nations and ratified by 126 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, states that nations should strive to assure that the disabled enjoy the same rights and fundamental freedoms as their fellow citizens. Republicans objected to taking up a treaty during the lame-duck session of the Congress and warned that the treaty could pose a threat to U.S. national sovereignty.

“I do not support the cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.

Sen. Inhofe is absolutely wrong. No UN treaty can ever supersede the laws of the United States; the Supreme Court has ruled that the Supremacy Clause of the US Consitution specifically forbids it. This is pure right wing fear-mongering at its most evil, and it’s flat out disgusting.

AreopagiticaYou know, I didn't always agree with Bob Dole's positions but he is a gosh dang war hero and has more honor and character in his pinkie finger than, well.....the current form of the GOP has none, zip, nadda. For ...

Today, Mother Jones’s David Corn has posted another recording of Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser; not as dramatic as the now-infamous “47%” video, but still very revealing of Romney’s (and wife Ann’s) true feelings — as Romney tells the audience that President Obama considers businesspeople “evil,” and his wife says Obama isn’t a “grown-up:” Romney to Business Crowd: Obama Sees You as an ‘Evil’.

Ever since I revealed Mitt Romney’s 47 percent rant, tips and tapes have come through the transom—including this and this. And another source who asked not to be identified just sent me an audio recording of a private Mitt Romney fundraiser from earlier this year. At this event, Romney didn’t decry half of the nation, but he and Ann Romney each expressed disdain for President Barack Obama, with the Republican presidential candidate asserting that Obama considers businesspeople “a necessary evil” and his wife suggesting that the president was not a “grown-up.”

This isn’t the first time Ann Romney has used that “grown-up” dog whistle, either. There’s a long history in this country of infantilizing black males, and the Romneys are simply carrying on this racist right wing tradition.

Patricia Kayden@24 Charles Johnson, It will be very disheartening if Romney is able to win despite running such a dishonest and racially hostile campaign. Would send a message to other Republicans that they can go hog wild with the dog whistles ...

Jon Avlon has a piece at The Daily Beast on the sick and twisted world of the right wing Obama Haters Book Club, where fear mongering and deranged conspiracy theories are a thriving business.

Welcome to the Obama Haters Book Club—a parallel universe of fear mongering for fun and profit.

Over the past four years, no less than 89 obsessively anti-Obama books have been published, as now catalogued by The Daily Beast. I’m not talking about cool statements of policy difference, but overheated and often unhinged screeds painting a picture of the president as a dangerous radical hell-bent on undermining the Republic by any means necessary. It is hate and hyper-partisan paranoia masquerading as high-minded patriotism.

Here’s the worst part—this steady drumbeat of incitement is having an impact on this presidential election because it has poisoned the well of civic discourse for many voters and those in their radius of damage. It has helped divide the nation beyond reason, distorting the president’s real record beyond all recognition.

By their very nature, books offer the promise of education and enlightenment. These conspiracy entrepreneurs pray on the prejudices of their audience. This is high-priced hardcover bile, boasting titles like:

The Communist; The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration; Where’s the Birth Certificate?; The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and other Anti-American Extremists; The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama’s War on the Republic; Trickle Down Tyranny: Crushing Obama’s Dream of the Social States of America; Gangster Government: Barack Obama and the New Washington Thugocracy; How Obama Embraces Islam’s Sharia Agenda; The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America; To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular Socialist Machine; The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency; and what is still my personal favorite title: Whiny Little Bitch: The Excuse Filled Presidency of Barack Obama.

Romantic Hereticre: #18 nines09 They believe that they are good, and that those who believe differently are evil. They believe that they are in a war against evil, and that war is on a level with the war in Middle Earth. ...

In this whacked out fear-mongering clip from July, we see Michele Bachmann giving a speech at the extreme right wing Eagle Forum’s 2012 Leadership Summit, raving that the entire US government is being infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood — with the explicit approval of Barack Obama.

The Romney campaign ratcheted up its language on Tuesday in a conference call on which former New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff John Sununu said he wished President Obama “would learn how to be an American.”
Sununu led a series of Romney surrogates in questioning the president’s commitment to economic freedom, dredging up the president’s ties to Tony Rezko; another speaker on the conference call said Obama’s policies were akin to “socialism.” …

“The president clearly demonstrated that he has absolutely no idea how the American economy functions. The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses, their businesses from the ground up is how our economy became the envy of the world — it is the American way,” Sununu said in his opening remarks of the conference call.

He added: “I wish this president would learn how to be an American.”

The first question to Sununu later in the call was about that comment, which exploded quickly on Twitter for its stark claim about Obama.

“What I thought I said, but I guess I didn’t say, is that the president has to learn the American formula for creating business,” he said. “If I didn’t give all that detail I apologize.”

Politics ain’t beanbag, this is true. Also true: John Sununu is a racist dog-whistling jackass.

Taking right wing fear mongering to an insane new level, here’s Rick Santorum’s latest web advertisement. Notice at about 39 seconds in: the image of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flashes to President Obama for a split second.

Here’s a second thread for wrap-up comments about this pathetic event they’re calling a debate. Brian Williams failed to follow up on a single issue; it was basically a two-hour commercial for the Republican Party agenda.

I don’t know who “won” the debate, but I know who lost. You, me, and reality.

GOHMERT: And I know the president made the mistake one day of saying he had visited all 57 states, and I’m well aware that there are not 57 states in this country, although there are 57 members of OIC, the Islamic states in the world. Perhaps there was some confusion whether he’d been to all 57 Islamic states as opposed to all 50 U.S. states. But nonetheless, we have an obligation to the 50 American states, not the 57 Muslim, Islamic states. Our oath we took is in this body, in this House. And it’s to the people of America. And it’s not to the Muslim Brotherhood, who may very well take over Egypt and once they do, they are bent upon setting up a caliphate around the world, including the United States. And this administration will been [sic] complicit in helping people who wants [sic] to destroy our country.

troquaWhat's really frightening about this uber-hick is that he served as Chief Justice on Texas' 12th District Court of Appeals. Appointed by Governor Good Hair, who I can't wait to see enter the prez race. That's going to be fun! ...

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Justice Department Spokesman Marc Raimondi released the following statement Tuesday: "Three documents - a criminal Information, a plea agreement, and a statement of facts - were filed today in the United States District Court for the Western District of ...

Morgan Whitaker exposes where wingnuts are getting their "information" on "the evil, un-American, Kenyan, Marxist Muslim" Obama. This story is about a year old, but its still relevant today. David Jackson, of Belmont, NC, does not like President Obama. He ...

This is a random post, but since I did a little bit of research, I decided to write up a short summary that may be useful for others. Ever since the 1988 carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin showed ...

What, precisely, is this woman's major malfunction? For going on 30 years, she has been the target of every strange conspiracy theory that the half-bright mind of man can dream up. She knows they're out there, pining to have ...

Jeb Bush has been adamant that he will not switch his positions on two issues, immigration and Common Core standards, that will generate conservative opposition in the Republican primaries. But he just made a major concession to conservatives on ...

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Samsung over what it says is the recording of private conversations in homes through the company's television sets. The privacy rights group filed a complaint with ...

From the National Center for Science Education House File 272, introduced in the Iowa House of Representatives on February 17, 2015, and referred to the House Committee on Education, would, if enacted, prevent Iowa from adopting the Next Generation ...

When journalist Chai Jing released her documentary on China's air pollution, she probably could not have dreamed that her message would resonate so widely while boosting the share prices of so many "environmentally friendly" companies. On Monday, more than ...

I went out to the post box and found the latest issue of Nat Geo, March 2015, there with this cover photo: And the headlines: THE WAR ON SCIENCE:Climate Change does not existEvolution never happenedThe Mood Landing was fakeVaccinations can ...

Buried somewhere deep inside the code of some Web browsers and websites is an old, weak version of encryption that can easily be cracked. And the only reason it exists is because of bad U.S. policies that have since ...

Curt Schilling showed a young punk you don't mess with his daughter on twitter. Schilling's fond paternal congratulations were met with "tweets with the word rape, bloody underwear and pretty much every other vulgar and defiling word you could likely ...

In this era of raw nerves, protests and increased tensions, Americans really want leadership. It's natural for the public and the media to desperately seek out examples that appear to affirm that our nation is changing for the better. ...

By this process, you can arrive at a conclusion like this: To win the War on Women, you better put a ring on it. At CPAC, conservatives dedicated an entire panel to "The Future of Marriage." One could be ...

Earlier today interested Redditors posed questions to Poitras and Greenwald in Los Angeles, while Snowden posted from Moscow. A rare opportunity for average people to directly communicate with the (in)famous leaker.See the entire discussion HERE Redditor masondog13 asks: What's the ...

Wait a minute... watching Fox News and the Republican talking heads I learned that all Muslims are bad bad bad and in no way can Islam be interpreted as any sort of peaceful religion. news.yahoo.com OSLO (Reuters) - More than ...

For the last three years it's been my privilege to help coach a dedicated group of young women who have founded the first Women's Flat-Track Roller Derby league in Israel. They've learned, trained, fought, and worked unbelievably hard to bring ...

Added bold is all mine. this was an awkward way to go about gun control anyway. It clearly impacts the law abiding far more than felons, and is by that definition inefficient and intrusive at best. Gonna have to do ...